Looking North: Tommy Taylor
While serving in the U.S. Navy, Tommy Taylor set out to find a degree that reflected his passion for sustainability, northern cultures and lifelong learning. That search led him to UAF, where he combined Climate and Arctic Sustainability, AVÀÇÂÛ̳ Native Languages and sustainable energy studies into an academic path that reflects his wide-ranging interests. In the Q&A below, Taylor shares how curiosity, persistence and a passion for the North have shaped his journey.​
Tommy Taylor
Tell us a little about yourself.
My name is Tommy Taylor. I'm majoring in Climate and Arctic Sustainability with a minor in AVÀÇÂÛ̳ Native Languages. This semester, I'll finish up an occupational endorsement certificate in sustainable energy.
Some interesting things about myself: I'm married, have three kids and have, I'm going to say, close to 40 animals. It fluctuates from time to time because we have a lot of birds, so, you know, we lose them occasionally. We have horses, goats, pigs, alpacas, dogs, cats, chickens and ducks.
What brought you to UAF, and what made you decide that it was the right place for you?
I guess I'll pull all the way back to the start of that decision. I've been in the Navy for 16 years, so I knew that at some point during the course of my career I was going to go back to school. A few years back, I told myself that I wasn't going to go to school just to get a degree. I wanted to find something that really interested me. I got to the end of that three-year window and came up with something I wanted to do at the very end of it, with no real time to actually start the program.
I went through four years knowing what I wanted to do, but I didn't have time to do it. I knew I would have another window later on down the line. My original plan was with another university. I was going through the application process, and our program was targeting sustainability in a similar context, but I've always been interested in sustainability and energy, along with cultural studies, linguistic studies and mythological studies. On a whim, I started going down a rabbit hole looking at different language programs. I'm not AVÀÇÂÛ̳ Native, but I discovered the AVÀÇÂÛ̳ Native Language Program at UAF, and that was the first thing that got me looking into UAF.
Then, as I kept looking, I realized there was also a Climate and Arctic Sustainability program. No other school in the country has an Arctic program like UAF. It was really the major and the minor that drew me here. After four years of planning to go to another school and another program, I abruptly decided to look at something else. Those two things are what drew me to apply to UAF.
As far as when I knew UAF was the right choice for me, it was as soon as I started reading through the program descriptions and looking at everything that was available to study. I thought, "This is definitely the school I want to go to."
The other part of that was that I'm stationed in California. There's no way for me to take classes in AVÀÇÂÛ̳, so I needed to know whether there were good remote learning opportunities. Since then, I've found that's another thing that really sets UAF apart. The programs and classes are available remotely, and you can do everything online. I started taking classes several years ago at another school, and I would say there was a stigma around online learning then. I don't see anything like that with UAF. I don't see any distinguishable difference between online and in-person. Other than in person maybe having a little better access to professors, the learning and the curriculum are great.
What are you excited about next, and how has UAF prepared you for it?
For what I'm excited about next, it's hard to know exactly what that direction looks like right now. My military career is still ongoing. There's still at least a few years left, so I'm much closer to the end, but it still creates a little bit of a gap between now and what the long term looks like.
With that said, I'm definitely looking toward graduate school. There are a couple of different options there. I might try to get that started next year, or I may delay it a few years down the line. I'm still kind of looking at what's going to be the best option. There's definitely a possibility that I continue graduate school at UAF. There are at least two programs that come to mind that I'm interested in moving forward with.
I'm excited to continue learning, though. I waited a long time to go back to school, but I've always had a lot of interest in learning new things and never letting that curiosity die out. So regardless of what the immediate short term looks like, that's something I'm really excited to keep going with.
Long term, I'm hoping to get somewhere north and start putting a little more of my studies into practice.
What advice would you give to future UAF students?
First and foremost, don't just look at what your immediate program is going to be. Take a look around at everything the school has to offer as far as classes and opportunities. Look at what's available out there.
I'll finish my bachelor's next spring—or I should be finishing it—but even now, like I said, I got the occupational endorsement certificate. It was fairly convenient to get because it was only a couple of additional credits on top of classes I already had to take as part of my major.
Then you start looking into things like ethnobotany. I have an ethnobotany class that's part of my degree program, and then you realize there are all these other ethnobotany classes you can take. There's an occupational endorsement certificate in ethnobotany. Look at all of the opportunities the school has.
I enrolled at UAF with the intention of being kind of fast-tracked because, with my career, I have windows of time that make it easier for me to do school, so I knew I had a finite amount of time. If you're coming here for four years, or some people stay a little bit longer, look at everything that's out there. If you see a topic you have any remote interest in, and it works for you to enroll in that class, jump on those opportunities. You might discover something you never knew you'd be excited about, and suddenly, two classes later, you're thinking about changing your major.
That's not necessarily something that happened with me, but looking at some of the opportunities that are out there, if I'd had more time, I would've wanted to study that. I would've wanted to study this a little more in depth. I'd be very curious.
Congratulations to Tommy Taylor on being named one of the Arctic and Northern Studies program's 2026 Outstanding Students of the Year. Learn more about the Arctic and Northern Studies program and explore more Outstanding Student spotlights from across the College of Liberal Arts.